Over the next few months, we will be highlighting a member of the Department of Medicine vice chair team each week to learn more about them and their roles in the department. Want more info? Find vice chair bios, FAQs, resources and more on our DOM Vice Chair Sharepoint.
Associate Vice Chair for Ambulatory Quality and Safety
Samantha Pitts, MD, MPH joined the department as the Associate Vice Chair for Ambulatory Quality and Safety in July 2021. As a faculty member in the Division of General Internal Medicine, she helped establish the Comprehensive Unit-Based Safety Program (CUSP) and led quality improvement initiatives in her clinical practice at Green Spring Station. She co-directs the Armstrong Institute Patient Safety and Quality Leadership Academy, a nine month program that mentors faculty, staff and trainees to lead quality and safety initiatives. Her research focuses on improving population health through the implementation and dissemination of evidence-based interventions in ambulatory care, leveraging health information technology and teams to improve systems of health care delivery and health outcomes. She directs the Johns Hopkins Precision Medicine Adult Primary Care Center of Excellence, which seeks to promote healthy people and communities through precision data and analytics to enable a learning health system.
As associate vice chair, she aims to:
- Serve as a resource on ambulatory quality and safety for providers, staff and leaders throughout the Department of Medicine (DOM)
- Represent the DOM in hospital and health system discussions about ambulatory quality and safety
- Collaborate with ambulatory clinic leaders, DOM leaders and JHM ambulatory teams on quality improvement activities related to Johns Hopkins strategic priorities and externally reportable metrics, such as Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) and the Maryland Primary Care Program (MDPCP)
- Assist local clinical and divisional leaders to address ambulatory safety event reports, including formal root cause analyses where indicated.
During her first year, she met with clinical leaders across the DOM to understand each division’s quality and safety priorities and challenges and understand the scope of ambulatory care in the DOM. She continues to meet with quality improvement teams across the department to support their goals. In addition, she is working with Osler residents on an ambulatory QI initiative on hypertension control.
One frequently asked question is what resources are there for faculty or trainees to learn quality improvement methods. A great place to start is the Armstrong Institute’s Lean Practitioner for Healthcare Course, an eight hour course offered virtually several times per year. For those who are interested in further developing leadership in quality and safety, she encourages them to consider the Leadership Academy.
During her time as associate vice chair, she has learned about the amazing breadth of ambulatory care across the department and the complexity of the relationships between different Hopkins entities in the operations and oversight of ambulatory practices.
